SKETCHBOOK: Lei design concept // sfw
Added 2020-01-30 11:28:28 +0000 UTCso i’ve long had this character named lei, who has a fairly well-developed story but i never quite managed to pinpoint his design. he is basically a lab-grown mix of spirit and mortal, set loose upon the world to wreak havoc. he quickly becomes infamous, eventually ends up in prison, and is stuck there for decades. a spirit and a priest finally breaks him out, and he learns that for some unfathomable reason the mad sun god helwusah has chosen him as his champion.
i knew from the start that i wanted to theme him on a (solar) eclipse, mostly for sun reasons but it also seems like suitably unsettling imagery given his ‘unnatural’ origins. but beyond that i was pretty stumped. i kept doing concept doodles, trying out an assortment of design ideas, but it didn’t click until i randomly tried giving him a fox-like tail, at which point i remembered that the trickster sun god is associated with foxes and coyotes. i decided that lei might as well be a monstrous fox shapeshifter, although i tried to distort and exaggerate his features to make him look more intimidating and dangerous. i’m still struggling with his colour scheme and markings, but progress has been made!
// art + character © me.
